The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking Awards Contracts for the Discoverer Supercomputer Upgrade

Discoverer is the EuroHPC petascale supercomputer located in Bulgaria and hosted at Sofia Tech Park. Operational since 2021, Discoverer can execute more than 4.5 Petaflops, the equivalent of 4.5 million billion operations per second. The system is currently ranked 188th on the TOP500 world’s most powerful supercomputer systems list.

The upgrade will increase the supercomputer’s operational performance, and provide new functionalities to address the evolution of user needs.

More specifically, the Discoverer upgrade will add the following components to the current system:

• Upgrading the system with a GPU partition to enhance Discoverer overall performance. This new partition will be supplied by Eviden (Czech Republic S.R.O);
• Increasing the storage capacity. The company A1 Bulgaria will deliver and install two new storage systems, effectively expanding Discoverer's storage capacity to meet evolving computational demands,
• Equipping the system with additional UPS systems (Uninterruptible Power Supply) to safeguard Discoverer's operations and provide a backup power source in case of a power outage, brownout, or a surge in power.  A1 Bulgaria will supply these systems.

The new GPU partition and flash storage will make Discoverer compatible for AI workflows such as neural network training, digital twin simulations, LLM training, and image recognition.

Discoverer is the first EuroHPC supercomputer to benefit from an upgrade. It will remain available to serve a wide range of users in the scientific community, industry and the public sector, no matter where in Europe they are located. With its boosted performance and capabilities, Discoverer+ will be a strategic asset that will advance science and support the development of a wide range of applications with industrial, scientific and societal relevance for Europe.   

With the upgrade of Discover, the EuroHPC JU is seizing the opportunity provided in Regulation 2021/1173 to extend the capacities of its supercomputers and implement its mission to deploy in Europe a world-leading supercomputing infrastructure.

The installation of the new components will start in the near future.

Background

A1 Bulgaria, part of A1 Group, and Eviden have been selected following a call for tender launched in October 2023.

A1 is the leading provider of telecommunications and digital solutions in Bulgaria, providing a vast portfolio of ICT and IoT services helping corporate and public organizations thrive.

Eviden is a technology leader in data-driven, trusted and sustainable digital transformation with a portfolio of patented technologies and worldwide leading positions in advanced computing, security, AI, cloud and digital platforms.

The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) is a legal and funding entity created in 2018 to enable the European Union and EuroHPC participating countries to coordinate their efforts and pool their resources with the objective of making Europe a world leader in supercomputing. 

In order to equip Europe with a world-leading supercomputing infrastructure, the EuroHPC JU has already procured nine supercomputers, located across Europe. Three of these EuroHPC supercomputers are now ranked among the world’s top 10 most powerful supercomputers: LUMI in Finland, Leonardo in Italy and MareNostrum 5 in Spain.  

No matter where in Europe they are located, European scientists and users from the public sector and industry can benefit from these EuroHPC supercomputers via the EuroHPC Access Calls to advance science and support the development of a wide range of applications with industrial, scientific and societal relevance for Europe. Recently reviewed by means of Council Regulation (EU) 2024/1732, the EuroHPC JU received a new mandate to develop and operate AI factories. These comprehensive open AI ecosystems centered around EuroHPC supercomputing facilities will support the growth of a highly competitive and innovative AI ecosystem in Europe.